From about 2011 to winter of 2015, writing about the Chicago Cubs, the parent club, elicited this in your page views chart:
While at the same time, articles on prospects, on the Cubs minor leaguers did this:
With the team projected to win as many as 103 games this season, no one’s really thinking about prospects right now. It’s win now mode, with a frame of mind focused on the present. That’s how it should be, but that doesn’t mean the future needs to be overlooked. We kick off the 2016 Cubs Prospect Profile series with Willson Contreras and Oscar de la Cruz.
ESPN.com MLB senior writer Keith Law appeared on a media call to discuss the top prospects of 2016. He was asked about Ian Happ, Julio Martinez and which Cubs prospect might actually make it up to the parent club this season. Law sees C.J. Edwards as the only guy who might fill a need in an available spot.
One other question I have is about Julio Martinez, and I was wondering what kind of a player do you think he’ll be, where would you start him out this year, and how far away is he from the Majors?
KEITH LAW: I saw him work out in the Dominican. Saw BP, saw him run, got to shake his hand, so I was physically close to him to see what the body looks like. If that were an American?born kid in his third year of college, he’d be a top of the draft type of prospect because you just don’t see athlete like this.
This is like with George Springer when he was coming out of college, we were all saying, we’ve never seen a toolsy college position player like this because they all sign out of high school. Martinez has a great swing. It’s very fluid. He’s got loft for power.
I saw his BP obviously, but I saw him launching balls out and he’s certainly got the hand strength to do it, but he really hasn’t played a whole lot of games, organized games. His limited time in the Cuba Serie Nacional was not great, so I would be inclined to send him out to low A, let him go to low A, and if he just destroys it, you really haven’t lost anything.
If he just goes absolutely nuts in April, okay, move him up. You’d much rather do that than be too aggressive, send him to high A or even Double?A, which he might be ready for, but what if he goes there and he’s totally overmatched and then you’ve set everything back.
I would be fine with him being conservative, let him race himself up the ladder, because nobody has any idea what kind of approach he has, plate discipline, pitch recognition. All these Cuban guys are just getting signed off workouts, and that’s fine, they don’t really have a whole lot else, but compare them to Yusniel Diaz who the Dodgers signed for all that money earlier this offseason, he at least had a season and change in the Cuban professional league where he performed like crazy.
So the Dodgers could at least point to that and say we have some data. It’s not a whole lot, but at least it’s something. With Martinez you don’t really even have that, and that’s part of why I left him off the top 100, even though I think he has top?100?level tools.
Q. You’re pretty optimistic about Ian Happ being able to make the transition to second base. I was wondering if you could elaborate why you think he could do that, and one other thing is what prospects do you think could be in Chicago this summer making an impact on the Major League level?
KEITH LAW: Sure. So on Happ, I actually saw him play shortstop for a portion of a game this spring, and not that I would ever say he’s a shortstop, but he was fine. I mean, he had plays he had to make, he was able to move laterally just fine. He’s not slow. He doesn’t look like a typical infielder. He’s kind of strong and a little bit thicker than your typical infielder, but he’s absolutely got the agility and the quickness to be able to play second base, and his hands are certainly fine.
I know they ran him out there in center field this year just to see what it looked like, to try to create some positional flexibility, but they say they want him to be a second baseman.
I see absolutely no reason that he can’t do it, because as you just sort of check off all the things you’re looking for, the quickness, the lateral agility, the hands, they’re all there, and his arm is fine, but you also don’t need a whole lot of an arm to be able to play a capable second base, so I’m very optimistic.
As for prospects getting to Wrigley this year, I’m not sure that there’s a spot for anybody. C.J. Edwards maybe wins a spot in the bullpen, but other than that, probably not until maybe the very end of the year, barring some highly unexpected injury that accelerates someone else’s timetable. But I just don’t see it.
I went through the 25?man rosters for all teams as I was doing the org reports, and they were one of the few where I felt like I could probably tell you 23, 24, maybe even all 25 guys, which meant that there weren’t a lot of opportunities, unless somebody comes to Spring Training and is throwing lights out and they decide they have to bring him north as one of the seven relievers, and Edwards was my guess because he’s closer, he’s been there a little bit. With the breaking ball you’ve probably got your swing?and?miss weapon.
2016 Cubs Prospect Profile Series
Ian Happ, Julio Martinez, C.J. Edwards
Willson Contreras, Oscar de la Cruz
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram